3 Amigas no more....

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I have been having trouble with the internet, hence the delay in publishing the blog. AND, the cold is hanging on. Wah. Bad news. Dawna's mother has died. Dawna is leaving us. Poof! And just like that, the 3 amigas are no more. 😞 Sad. As Dawna makes her preparations to return home to Alberta, part of me is envious. "Have a BIG cup of Starbucks for me when you get home!", I say. LOL Part of me is just sad--Sad for her and sad for me and Joyce, too. We three have become good friends clingly together warmly on the other side of our world, and feeling far, far away from those we love and the familarity of our homes in North America. But I understand that your mother's passing is one of those life events in which you must participate unless you happen to be on Mars when it happens. And China isn't Mars so off she goes. As her plans for return are still in the making, we are unsure exactly when we will be saying "Au revoir" to her, but it will happen this week.

Unfortunately, the 3 amigas had planned a lovely overnight visit to the enchanting isle of Gulang Yu or Piano Island, where Dawna and I had already visited relatively recently after just having arrived in Xiamen, but it seems that it will be only Joyce and me. We are looking forward to escaping to the peace and quiet of the Island, since no motorized vehicles are allowed, and our lovely B&B allows for the indulgence of European food and some speaking of French AND English. The proprietor, Remy speaks French as do Joyce and I and I am missing speaking French. We plan to explore the island, visit the piano museaum and buy some more pearls at the Market. OMG, cannot wait for that. 😊

Joyce and I have decided that we are pathetic beings. Here it is, Sunday night, and it's 8 o'clock. We are ready for bed. We have drunk 2 bottles of so-so Chinese red wine between the three of us....lemme say, it's not terrible, but it ain't Beaujolais, either. LOL But what the heck. We neglected to make supper. Oh well. LOL. We don't have to be good moms here. We can just slack off and that is what we did. We watched a pirated DVD on our big screen tv and couldn't believe it when it was over, we felt that it had to be at least 10 pm but we realized it was only 8 pm. OMG. NO! Say it isn't so??? It's NOT time for bed. Well, maybe, lol, but we're resisting anyway!

We are planning a little going away luncheon for Dawna on Tuesday to send her off in style. Least we can do. We will invite all the Tianjiao staff, and have a great time at the Thai restaurant--the food is so delish, the place so clean. We decided that is where our formal "au-revoirs" will be. One of our staff members is having his 75th birthday and we are also going to fete him, but not for a bit. The National Holiday is coming up for China next week and we have a weird schedule. We get the weekend off, but then will work during the week on the following Thursday and Friday.

We could NOT believe what happened to us leaving school today. We went and had our green tea ice-cream, Mmmmm, oh-so-yummy and then decided to catch the BRT home...only 1 stop. Well, first Joyce got stuck in the turnstile AGAIN. She is absolutely paranoid about this, and who can blame her? She has only passed through it one time without being caught. LMAO, seriously! She just cannot get through. Well, today was no different. After unsuccessfully trying, she finally climbed underneath it, and off we went. At the end of our trip, the turnstile wouldn't let her OUT again, LOL. THe nice transit man tried to help us, and finally seeing as he was having no luck, sent us to a ticket agent, who tried her very best, in very broken English to explain.......I am not sure what happened but she fixed the problem with Joyce's card and after saying our thanks in Chinese, "Shay-shay" we were finally free!!

Well, trying to get onto a bus to get home was not easy. Each bus was PACKED full. After being passed by about 382 buses, we said, piss on this, if the next one isn't accessible, we are so OUTTA here.....and we were kinda having fun on the platform waiting cuz 3 really cute little girls about 9 or 10 years old decided they liked us and were asking us questions....like, where were we from? And what were we doing here? Then they told me I was very beautiful with my blue eyes and blonde hair. And I told them that I thought that they were beautiful too, and they were. Their shining black hair and eyes, and their beautiful smiles were a gift! Joyce has commented that we attract attention wherever we go....a man on a motorcycle damn near crashed himself today staring at her in her pretty dress! I laughed my head off! His head turned all the way around like an owl's......LOL!

Well, back to the BRT...after waiting and waiting finally a bus stopped and some people got out. We squeezed ourselves in, I kid you not, Joyce damn near lost her arm she was so close to the doors when they squeezed shut with so many souls aboard, and we lurched forwards...NEVER have I touched so many stranger simulataneously with my body. YUK! (I am apparently SO not an orgy person! LMAO, TMI, tmi, I know.....LOL) And it was hot and I was not passing the "sniff test" and Jesus, that's a disconcerting thought when you are that close to a stranger! Luckily, we giggled through the 3 minutes it took to get us to our stop and then squeezed out with considerably more ease than we'd squeezed in, lemme say, and we just laughed all the way home about how crazy that is! It is just insane to us, that we PUSHED other human beings into the car, listened to them protest verbally but did it anyway, just like they do and MADE room to travel! One would NEVER get away with that at home. I don't know what big cities in Canada are like, but I am pretty sure that shoving people so you can squeeze in is considered pretty bad form and one would receive "I keel you" (Think Jeff Dunham's Achmed the Terrorist I keel you!) looks not to mention the inevitable verbal abuse which would be simultaneous, or am I wrong here?

The pictures with today's blog include some of the funny English signs I have seen. We see many, many examples of terrible English here every day, and some of it is absolutely ludicrous! People often have ENglish text on their clothing which makes no sense at all or is missing complete words or is spelled incorrectly. I have also seen, for the record, quite a bit of French on t-shirts or nick-nacks, too. It seems to be a bit better, but there isn't as much of it as their is the bastardized English. LOL The best "worst" example I've heard of was when Diane and Rich toured a Hakka village and saw a sign saying something to the effect of the gun turrets were used for protection of the "enema", LOL, that certainly an interesting mistake, isn't it? LOL Enjoy!

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Comments

[Suzanne]

3 amigas
Sorry about Dawna. Will you be getting someone new perhaps sharing the app if a new gal is hired?

[Denise Tucker]

I\'m just loving your blog, Carolyn! It\'s so easy to picture life around you, you\'re so descriptive! I look forward to each new entry. Keep enjoying yourself and learning, but keep safe as well.

[Spirited Northern]

Response to Suzanne....
Salut mon amie, we may have a new teacher with whom to share the apartment. We are already missing Dawna and she barely left 3 hourse ago. Would you like to join us here for 2 months or so? LOL xoxox

[Spirited Northern]

Response to Denise
My friend, so glad you are along for the ride...I am heartened at your kind words...China is amazing and don't worry, keeping safe but still taking enough risks to make life worthwhile and interesting! Hope all is well at WW and in Thompson. Look forward to a coffee date when you are home. Xoxoxo C